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Ocean Prince
The Ocean Prince is an Liquified Natural Gas carrier featured in Ship Simulator Extremes. She transports liquified gas in 4 Kvaerner-Moss spheres, which contain a total amount of about 95% Methane, making her highly dangerous. Analysis The Ocean Prince has 4 large Kvaerner-Moss sphere containers, which have the capacity of carrying a total volume of 147,000m³ liquified natural gas. LNG consists of about 95% Methane, which requires the spherical container to be insulated at around -167°C, and kept at atmospheric pressure. 95% Methane is 45% the density of water. The gas can be used onboard for diesel-electric energy production. History The Ocean Prince start life as the "Red Leaf", built for Canadian Bulk Material Transportation Commission by Union Shipbuilding in North Vancouver British Columbia in 1974. The Red Leaf was launched on October 15 1975. At 944 feet, the bulk carrier was projected to carry coal, sand, grain, wheat, powdered cement, salt, stone, ore, wood-chips and other agricultural materials. It's contractor, the Canadian Bulk Material Transportation Commission, put the ship on very precise trade routes to Asia, Europe and the Great Lake region. As the CBMT began to send half of there fleet to Mexico to export grain in 1980, the Red Leaf was sent to Great Lake ports to export their grain to Mexico. Usually, it's port of call was Thunder Bay and Toledo. In 1980's, the ship saw services out Halifax, Nova Scotia, rather than it's regular port of call of Vancouver. By the 1986, the ship, painted in a usual orange color, was now heavily rusted. The Canadian Bulk Material Transportation Commission became under heavy fire with Canadian Government after a captain of the ship, Darren M, Cotter, sailed down the Saint Lawrence Seaway at night with no navigation lights on. This effected the "Safe Waters Act of Canada". The Canadian Bulk Material Transportation Commission was shut down by the Canadian Government after to many safety violations were noted on July 1 1988. It's fleet of 80 ships were laid-up in Montreal that December after the final revenue prices were brought in. The Red Leaf was purchased by the Nordstrom Financial Corporation in January 1989 and was temporarily leased to the company. The Red Leaf laid up in Halifax in January 1990, for sale once again. The Dutch firm, Ocean Company, purchased the ship in 1992. The Red Leaf became the poster-ship for "Project Prince", a rebuilding organized specially for the ship. On June 8 1992, the Red Leaf left Halifax under it's own power to Hamburg, where it was to be rebuilt. The ship arrived at Hamburger Schiffbau (Hamburg Shipbuilding) yard on July 16. The ship began to undergo a heavy transformation. The deck-house was removed and rebuilt on the ground, while the cargo hold was gutted and four huge Kvaerner-Moss spheres were placed into the hold. The deck-house was finished that winter, the rest of ship was finished in 1994. The ship was painted into a orange livery and the name, "Ocean Prince", was painted on the ship. The Ocean Prince made it's first voyage on November 16 1994. Since 1994, the Ocean Prince has been working for Ocean LNG, Ocean Company's subsidiary. The ship has been kept in top condition since 1990's as well. It currently serves any ports that accepts LNG vessels. In 2012, Royal Dutch Shell announced its intentions to purchase 90% of Ocean Company, the deal would include 8 ships, the Ocean Prince included, to operate under the "Shell" brand. In 2013, the Ocean Company attempted to be spun-off into a new company called, "Ocean-Shell Petroleum Company", with remaining 10% of Ocean being absorbed into Shell. In November 2013, Shell merged with the Ocean Company. Ocean LNG, at the time, was operating as separate company. It was announced in December 2013 that Ocean LNG would be shut down and the only ship in the fleet, the Shell-leased, Ocean Prince, would be sold. On July 10 2014, Ocean LNG was shut-down and the Ocean Prince delivered its last load to Miami, Florida. It sailed to Hamburg the following day and was laid up in the former yard of Hamburger Schiffbau in Finkenwerder River. Reportedly, gas pipes and some of the Kvaerner-Moss spheres were removed, but the ship is currently in one piece. As of October 2015, the Ocean Prince is still laid up in a grassy area of the Finkenwerder River, with anchors ashore buried beneath the dirt. It was reported in 2016 that the Ocean Prince, now named "Prince", was sold to Houston, Texas-based company, PetroNav Incorporated, and after engine and mechanical tests, left under it's own power to Kobe Japan on May 25th 2016. It arrived on June 29 at Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation's Kobe Works to begin its conversion into a gas carrier. It's conversion is due to be completed in early 2017 and will enter service in the 3rd quarter of 2017. Category:Ships Category:Ship Simulator Extremes